Close Behind || Aaron Minyard

7

She woke up a few hours later when a door opened loudly somewhere below her. Naomi sat up straight and jerked her body against a wall, she reached into her pocket and found no knife.

So, as you do, she started panicking.

Her breathing wasn't even at all as she pushed herself up and roughly ditched her covers. They weren't hers, she didn't own any. Whose blue bed spread was this?

Fear gripped her body. What happened when she wasn't awake? It wouldn't be the first time but she needed to find out before she could breathe again.

Naomi forced herself to swing her legs over and stand, she wobbled a little but her legs didn't hurt. That was a good sign. Her feet were planted firmly, she looked down to see sweat pants covering her legs. Too baggy to be her own.

She winced and tapped at her legs and found her shorts were on underneath. Which was odd, but whatever. She had more important problems.

Naomi pushed herself to the door and yanked it open, thankfully it wasn't locked. She closed it quietly behind herself and stepped into the hallway, there was four other doors.

She silently stepped down the unfamiliar hall and tried to think of an escape or something to be a weapon. In theory the lamp would work but she couldn't get that free without making noise, so that's a no.

Instead she just walked until she reached the stairs and looked down in abject horror.

From the top down the stairs she saw a couch that she knew from somewhere but didn't know where. Naomi frowned, there was no one there, so she took silent steps down the stairs. Again thankful that none creaked.

She stepped down off the last one and looked all around the living room. There was talking in the kitchen, a lot of voices. It made her flinch. She grabbed a pen from a table and uncapped it, mildly terrified that it was her only defense.

With the pen hanging in her limp hand to look unassuming, just in case, Naomi ambled towards the voices in the kitchen area.

She froze with relief when she saw two heads of too blond hair and dropped the pen to the floor. The sound made the both turn around quickly, startled.

Andrew tilted his head, his meds were wearing off, she could tell, and his smile was tiny. Aaron moved his eyes across her figure.

"Good morning, Naomi," Abby, the team nurse called, gaining her attention from the twins. She was smiling, even though it was clearly too early. "How are you feeling?"

"I told you no doctors," Naomi says pointedly at Aaron, ignoring both the question and Andrew. She frowns at him, it should probably be a scowl. "What am I doing here?"

"You have a mild concussion, seven stitches and dislocated finger," Abby says, no one else says anything to her but at least Aaron looks a little guilty for upsetting her. "The boys were right to bring you to me. What happened?"

"I'm fine, I was fine," Naomi snaps at her. She squints a little at the endearing smile that her tone isn't getting rid off. This is all so disconcerting. "I didn't need a fucking doctor to tell me all of that, I figured it out myself."

"Yeah, before you passed out in my arms," Aaron finally argued, but he doesn't sound all that angry.

Naomi frowns openly at him, too tired and fuzzy at the edges to understand what that look on his face means. She looks between all of them. "As nice as this is, can someone get me the hell out of here?"

"No, I'm afraid not," Abby at least sounds a little upset, and her smile is sad. "I'm sure you'd rather be with your brother but I need to check on you first. Passing out when concussed before being evaluated isn't good."

"I know who the president is, it's Tuesday, my middle name is Amelie and I'm in Palmetto," Naomi says with a rushed wave of her hand, growing impatient. "There, brains working fine. Andrew can you drive me to Wymacks?"

"Kitty Cat," He lulls his head a little, and Naomi stifles a groan. Of course he's hitting a mega high when she needs him to be running on low. "I don't think they'd be very happy with a runaway cat. We already have one rabbit. Go climb up a tree and stay stuck a while."

"Okay, even if I wasn't concussed," Naomi says. "That barely would make sense."

"Do I ever?"

"Yes, pretty frequently, actually," Naomi says shrugging.

"He never makes any sense," Aaron says baffled, he's staring at her like she holds the key to the universe. "What the hell did he even say?"

"Something about Neil being flighty and he'd thought I'm wasn't," Naomi groans a little when Abby starts making noise. Okay, sure, she's definitely concussed, but that's rude. "He told me to chill the hell out and go back to bed. Basically."

"Basically, basically," Andrew agrees with a grin.

"There's two of you," Aaron groans.

"Dramatic little fucker," Naomi snickers at the pure suffering on Aarons face, he's so funny to watch when he's bothered. "If you won't let me leave, can someone explain whose clothes I am half wearing?"

Andrew burst out laughing at that and waves a hand over at Aaron, who's trying not to turn into a tomato and failing miserably. "Bridal style carry up the stairs. Used his own clothes but got too scared to see a girl naked. Better not let Seth know, he'd probably call you a..."

"Okay, Andrew," Abby finally cuts in with a too broad smile. She claps her hands and walks over to him, mumbles something Naomi can't hear and he leaves laughing.

She can not wait for his meds to be fucking in a gutter. At this rate, she might flush them while she's here. How hard would to be to steal them from sleeping Kevin? She's stolen peoples wallets while they're being paranoid before, can't be any harder.

"How'd you sneak up on him?" Aaron blurts as Abby's leaving. When did she start leaving? He frowns at her a little. "Only Renee has ever been able to do it, and only twice."

"Evil parents," Naomi muses, it's the truth but not what he was asking her. That's her favorite brand of lies, really. "How do you always manage to blend into a wall?"

"Evil mom," Aaron agrees with a shrug. He looks her over for a while and then sighs. He gets out of his chair and holds his hand out, Naomi gives hers to him, and he starts looking it over. "Why'd you punch the mirror."

"Nicky," she finds herself saying.

"Yeah, he inspires people to do that," Aaron agrees with a frown. He pushes a little at her skin, she stiffens slightly but doesn't wince. "Abby says the concussion puts you out for two weeks. The stitches might make it three."

"Joy to the world, God saved the Queen. I've been saved by the bell that is Kevin's irritating presence," Naomi says cheerfully. Aaron frowns out her and she laughs softly. "That's why I can understand your brother."

"At least someone can," Aaron looks away to try not to seem upset but Naomi is too perceptive for that crap.

"I understand Andrew on drugs," Naomi tells him softly. Why is she being gentle? "I'm sure you know normal Andrew better than I ever will."

"I doubt it," Aaron mumbles, looking so sorry for himself that Naomi wants to make him laugh. He shakes his head and looks up at her with a blank look. "He's right, you should go to sleep."

Naomi looks at him for a while, a long while. Aaron has a freckle right under his eye and Andrew doesn't, his nose is crooked to the right from being broken at some point. She nods and gives him a tired smile. "Fine, but get your brother to drive me in the morning, yeah?"

"I'll try," Aaron laughs and lightly pushes her away.

neil's method for panic attacks: counting in languages
naomi's method: running and fucking disassociating in a corner somewhere
lol. aaron is so ken.
ken-beach
aaron-med student
naomi 🤝 andrew - being batshit crazy